


The Little Girl

by twiniitowers



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 09:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7568803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twiniitowers/pseuds/twiniitowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A part of the TZ Chronicles. Season 1. Episode 2. Eric meets a mysterious child. Oneshot. I hope that you’ll take a moment to read and review. The first segment is on the other website.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Girl

Death Count: 0 (For canon)

 

**Introduction:**

 

**Announcer: Eric Forman at seventeen-years-old is about to see that there are other forms of meaningful love in The Twilight Zone.**

**MAY**

 

Sometimes Eric Forman wished that he was of the female persuasion. Not in the physical sense, but in the relationship one. Kelso, Fez, and Hyde his best friend (the one that hurt him the most), all made fun of him because he was _still a virgin._ He couldn’t help it. Donna wasn’t ready to “go all the way” and he had to respect that. Besides, Fez was a virgin as well, so why was he the go to guy to make fun of in this area?

Besides, Hyde’s first time might have been with Esther the Biker Chick (Eric wasn’t sure), Kelso didn’t equate sex with love, and Fez well, being a needy foreign exchange student who wore too much cologne didn’t help his own situation any. He couldn’t picture Jackie who wound up to be _actual_ friends Donna making fun of her for being a virgin. He figured they probably talked over things in supportive and accepting ways.

It was a Sunday, a day that he didn’t have to go to church (thanks, Red, for once!) or Pricemart. He was supposed to call Donna, but he didn’t feel like it. He didn’t know what to say. Everyone would wind up in the basement anyway and that made Eric feel like he was suffocating in his own skin. While Kitty was whistling a happy tune (thank goodness for prescription pills and the occasional medicinal cocktail) while she mopped the floor, Eric grabbed his jacket and made his way out the front door.

He thought of going to the Water Tower, but then Hyde might be there smoking weed in public in his way to protest the government for being too involved in the lives of its citizenry. It was too far to trek to the affectionately named “Mt. Hump”, so he figured he’d find a place to sit by the reservoir. He could throw small rocks in the water and wonder when Donna was going to want to actually _BE_ with him or was she just waiting for a new and _better_ man to come along so he could dump his ass?

The wind was starting to make the leaves on the trees rustle and in the span of five minutes it felt like an early October instead of early May. Where he was too old for Kitty’s overdone and overblown birthday parties, but he still wanted to be acknowledged for living another damn year, it was one of the worst feelings in the world to be ignored.

He still didn’t want to go home to the mundane and he buttoned up his jacket. It was a good thing he brought it. It paid to listen to Kitty’s constant nagging of taking his coat whenever he left the house before June.

His ears perked up when he heard whispering come from the trees. He almost jumped five feet in the air when he could’ve sworn some one called his name. _Eric. Eric…..ERIC._ He turned around and saw a little girl, with blonde curls in pigtails set with blue ribbons, wearing a frilly-blue and white dress. The kind a little girl would wear at a birthday party. She was wearing white tights and shiny blue Mary Jane shoes. She was so cute and yet so out of place. Eric smiled at her.

“Hi…” He said while she sat next to him on a big rock. “What’s your name?”

“Daisy.” She had green eyes and pudgy cheeks.

“I’m Eric. How did you know my name?”

No answer.

“Okay,” he sighed, “Daisy…are you lost, honey?”

“No.”

He unbuttoned his jacket to take it off and placed it over her shoulders. She could wrap it around herself like a blanket. “Would you like go home with me?” If she wouldn’t talk to him, maybe she would open up to his mother.

“Sure.” She held out her hand, instead of being scared of a stranger, she had this assertiveness to her. It made Eric a bit uncomfortable, but he tried not to show it. Little kids, especially, little girls were warned to be afraid of strangers. But of course, this was couldn’t-do-a-pull-up-Eric-Forman. He smiled at the girl as they walked back to his house, hand in hand.

Like Darth Vader said in _Star Wars_ , he felt a presence.

* * *

“Wait until you meet my, Mom, Daisy…she will help you.”

“Hmm. Hmm.” She replied as Eric opened up the slider. She ran to one of the cool looking sea-foam green kitchen chairs.

The kitchen smelled pine-fresh, but Kitty was nowhere to be found as Eric turned back around from peaking in the living room. The whole house seemed quiet. Were Hyde and the rest of them downstairs?

“My mom’s not here right now,” Eric spotted the cake plate on the counter. “Would you like a piece of chocolate cake, Daisy?”

”Sure, Eric. And milk?”

“Of course, you can’t eat chocolate cake without it!” He smiled as he went to get two plates and two glasses out of the cupboard.

Whoever she was, she was a cute little girl. He almost didn’t want her to leave. The house could use the laughter and sunshine of a small child in it. Maybe, Red would be less inclined to call him a “dumbass” and Kitty could love someone in childlike ways when that child was closer to the age group where it was okay to do that sort of thing. Besides, it was nice to have a cake and milk buddy.

“How’s the cake, Daisy?”

”Good, Eric!” She smiled brightly.

Kitty almost dropped a singular brown paper grocery bag when she looked in the window of the slider door and saw Eric eating chocolate cake and having a full conversation with _himself._

* * *

Eric turned his head when he saw his mother open the door, “There’s my Mom. You’ll just love her!” Eric stood up when Kitty put the bag on the counter. “Hi, Mom. I hope that cake wasn’t for dessert tonight because we have a little guest…Mom, this is Daisy.”

_But there was no one else in the room._

“Eric, honey, no one else is here besides me and you."

What? Was Daisy hiding under the table? Eric thought. No. She was right there.

Daisy waved at Eric and smiled.

“She’s right here…Mom, this is Daisy.”

“Eric, no one is there!”

_And why that name?_

“Mom, stop joking around. You’re just as bad as the guys who are supposed to be my friends. You don’t want to scare a child.” Eric took the two dirty plates and the finished glasses of milk and put them in the dishwasher. “I went to the reservoir today and I found Daisy. She’s lost, but hasn’t told me anything else.”

Kitty didn’t know whether to agree with Eric’s story or to run upstairs to use the phone in her bedroom to order Red to come home due to the pending family emergency.

“Eric, well, you just watch her okay…. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Eric didn’t know why Kitty was acting so strangely and talking as if Daisy wasn't in the room at all. He sat back down in the chair and swirled around to face her.

“Eric, she can’t see me.”

“What? Damn…oops, sorry. She probably thinks I’m nuts.”

”Just tell her you were only joking around with her and that your friend Fez ate the second piece of cake.”

”How do you know Fez?”

The little girl yawned and stretched. "I'm tired. Is there a place I can rest?"

”Sure…in my room…follow me.”

The lost little girl wasn’t real? Eric felt his heart break at the thought and he didn’t know why.

* * *

When Eric had Daisy safely tucked into his bed and was ready to go down to the basement he bumped into Kitty. “Funny thing, Mom…. really funny thing! I was just joking around downstairs! Fez was the little girl…you know how much he loves anything chocolate.”

Kitty put her hands on Eric’s shoulders. “Eric, what’s wrong? Are you okay? When you weren’t down in the basement this morning and Fez and everyone else went to The Hub while the cake was still in the oven.”

“I’m okay…I’m just having problems with Donna….”

“Come downstairs with me…and we’ll have a nice talk. You don’t need to go crazy….”

She knew Eric might have inherited those tendencies from her. But she didn’t go around having conversations at the kitchen table with invisible people. Red was on his way home. Being a salaried manager he didn’t have to worry about being docked any pay. This was a topic that they hoped they never had to discuss with one of their children. Kitty knew Red was heartbroken on the inside. Just like he always was.

“I’m tired. I think I’ll just go to bed.”

“Okay, sweetie.” Kitty kissed him on the cheek, “I’ll be back to check up on you later.”

Eric sighed. She thought he was crazy. That her son wasn't all there in the head. He opened the door and hoped that Daisy was still there.

How could his mother not see? She was as tangible as the stack of _Playboy_ magazines under his bed or the clothes in his closet. Little mysterious Daisy was curled up in his bed. He walked up to her and quietly checked for a pulse. She had one. She was real. _SHE WAS REAL!_ He wasn’t the one with the problem. His mother was if she couldn’t see this pretty child.

“Sweet dreams, Daisy.”

What was he going to do?

Eric was tired and took a spare blanket and pillow that was in his closet to sleep on the floor and that was where his forlorn parents found him thirty-five minutes later.

* * *

“Eric, honey wake up,” Kitty kneeled down to shake him awake like she used to do after toddler naptime. “We’d like to talk to you.”

Eric opened up one sleepy eye to see his father standing over him. She called his father from work and suggested that he come home because their son turned out to be mental because he was talking to himself? He turned his head and saw Daisy reaching for the G.I. Joes.

“Don’t…” then he looked over his parents, “Nothing.” He rested his head against the worn pillow. It didn’t give much support. She was content playing with his action figures. Why not?

“Eric, your father and I are very concerned about you.” Eric figured he better prove that he could get up and stretched before standing.

“As you can see, I’m up. I’m okay. I told you…I was just joking before and Donna and I are just going through some stuff.”

Eric was waiting for the word ‘dumbass’ to fly out of Red’s mouth.

“How do you know of Daisy?” Kitty needed to know, Red was about to show an uncharacteristic side to himself and that was to let Kitty do all of the talking.

“I just m…. you’re not going to believe me.”

“Your mother asked you a question.” Red huffed with his arms crossed.

“I went to the reservoir and met Daisy this morning. She came home with me and we ate chocolate cake together. But you don’t believe me. So if I tell you she’s sitting on my bed…. you can’t see her…Do you want to lock me up now?”

“Honey, you’re hallucinating…”

”Are you and Steven smoking that stuff again?” Red asked back-to-form.

“No.” Eric crossed his fingers behind his back, which caused the little girl to laugh and quickly cover her hands over her mouth.

“You wanted me home for _this_? I’m going back to work.” Red and Kitty shared a small embrace and kiss on the cheek that Eric thought was sweet of his father to do.

Kitty sighed as she shut the door behind Red.

”We on the other hand are not done talking…. Eric, I’d like to know how you know about Daisy.”

”I told you the truth…it’s your problem if you don’t believe me.”

”Eric, no one appreciates a smart mouth.”

“I’m sorry.” Eric sat on the foot of his bed while he felt one of the GI Joes with Kung Fu Grip hit the small of his back.

“I’m going to tell you something – that is for you ears only, _not even Steven_. _Daisy is your sister_.”

“What?” Eric jumped off the bed as his eyes caught the little girl jumping on the bed. How could his mother not see this? _Sister? What?_ He already had a sister, one he didn’t particularly like, but he still had one.

“Laurie doesn’t even know. But a few years after you were born. I was pregnant again and I lost the baby.” Kitty said in her best attempt to not break down after telling the news to Eric.

No one knew this except for Red. Not even Bernice and Bea, especially those cold women who both resented Kitty. One woman hated her for stealing her precious baby boy from the life that she wanted him to have and the other one – her own flesh and blood- for just being who she was.

“I had a miscarriage….”

“Mom, I’m sorry…. So sorry.” That’s when Eric noticed Daisy fading from view. “No…No…” He started to cry, which in turn caused Kitty to break down just a little. “This hurt your father very deeply and why he is sometimes blind to Laurie. He’s not going to want to talk about this…so _don’t_ ask him. Now,” Kitty broke from her son’s embrace and cleared her throat, “I don’t believe your relatives send messages…. you seem to…. I don’t know how you found out about Daisy, but you must have overheard me and your father talking once and repressed it.”

“She was here, Mom! Honest…. but she’s gone now.”

“And that, Eric, is for the best. Why don’t you go to The Hub and meet up with Donna and everybody before the day is out? I’m sure they'd be happy to see you."

Eric was surprised that his Mother didn’t want to talk more about Daisy, but he always heard on TV that the worst pain that any parent could face was their child dying before them and to not even have had the chance to be born must have been a thousand, million times worse.

“Okay…I love you, Mom. And Dad too…but don’t tell him…. not today.”

Kitty only held his hand for a moment before leaving Eric to the silence that was in his room.

”Daisy? Are you there?”

Nothing. He sat on his bed letting more tears of disappointment of what could have been fall down his face. “Sweetie… I love you…. please come back….”

But nothing.

“I could’ve been a big brother…” Eric quietly muttered to himself as he put his pillow and blanket away. When he was finished he put his GI Joe back on the shelf over his bed.

* * *

Eric made it to The Hub, but he couldn’t go in. He could see them all through the windows. Donna with her nose in a binder, Jackie stealing Hyde’s French fries from the red plastic basket, and Kelso and Fez playing pinball. They could live _just fine_ in a world without him. He left the Vista Cruiser in the back alley where he parked it and ran back to the reservoir.

“Daisy…Daisy…” Eric called out when he returned to the spot where he found her. He realized at that moment he forgot his jacket. His mind did a double take when he saw her, but she was fifteen-years-old. She looked like a softer version of Laurie! That’s how old she’d be if she were alive today. She was dressed almost like Jackie from the pages of _Seventeen_. Her blonde hair was to her shoulders and put in a ponytail with an elastic band. She wore her jeans with a thick brown leather belt and a pink sweater with the scalloped sleeves and bottom. She was so pretty.

_Eric, talk like this….so no one will think that you are insane._

Why, do you look like that? 

_Because you wouldn’t accept me like this at first. And I didn’t want to scare you. Eric, if you’re thinking of doing something stupid. I ask you to think of Mom and Dad, okay? Just don’t. You’re  needed._

I’m not suicidal. I’m just confused.

_About what?_

You’re little cord necklace is almost like Hyde’s except your have a wooden D design.

_I like Steven, he’s a good guy. Your best friend._

It sucks without you.

_Eric, I’m always here…you can talk to me anytime from my heart to yours. And Anywhere. Go back to the Hub – give everyone a ride back to your house. We’ll talk later when you go to bed tonight. I love you._

She kissed him on the cheek and he felt a tiny surge of energy that made him realize that Daisy Forman was indeed real. No matter what his Mom continued to tell him.

I love you, too.

Daisy left again and Eric put his hands over his face and sobbed. That was when Donna found him fifteen minutes later.

* * *

“Eric, what’s wrong?” Donna sat next to him and put her arms around him.

“J-just hold me, okay?” He hoped that didn’t make him any less of a man, but if a man couldn’t cry because he found out he had a little sister who passed away before she was even born, then he wouldn’t be much of a man in the first place. Eric was briefly surprised, when Donna held him without any demands or questions.

**HOURS LATER:**

It was one of the most surreal moments at the dinner table that Eric Forman had ever experienced. Kitty told Hyde and Eric that Red wasn’t “feeling well”, but Eric knew better. It couldn’t have been easy having to think about his youngest daughter and that was probably reserved for only private moments in bed with Kitty.

Eric knew what Hyde did not and could not know according to his mother’s instructions. He wished he could tell his best friend, but he didn’t want to betray his parent's trust. They just wanted to keep this secret – theirs. If it weren’t for the events of today, Eric Forman never would have known.

“More mashed potatoes, Steven?” Kitty offered.

"Sure, Mrs. Forman."

"What about you, Eric?" She asked as she scooped a hearty spoonful on Hyde's plate.

Eric snapped out of his thoughts. He hoped that he could talk to Daisy again soon. But for now he had to focus on getting through the family meal.

"Sure, Mom.....sure."

It was _all_ he could do.

**Announcer: Listen to your heart for it opens up all of the doors in _The Twilight Zone._**

 

 

**THE END**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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